City Budget: Let's look at some things the City Council is doing

I say kudos to Lane Bajardi and Rick Kamber for rounding up their communities and constantly applying public pressure on City Council to vote in favor of what's best for their communities'. We should further challenge the Administration and City Council to work harder in creating a balance between what is best for the City of Hoboken when it comes to public policy and the budget. You simply cannot just steam roll the public to fund a deficit!

However, not to take anything away from Lane, Rick and the citizenry of the community involved, let us look at how City Council handled the situation. We are soon to embark on another political season (next spring) where the fate of our ever so dynamic members of city council will play out in the court of public opinion. Was the vote of Castellano, Del Bocchio, Cricco and Russo truly rooted in what's best for the community, or politically motivated as is so ordinarily the case? And as Rick said last week, can we count on them to do the right thing after the elections if we are so inclined (or other) to trust them in the hands of the public another time?

I say I'm not so sure. It is their prior track record that has brought us to these events in the first place. Why have we spent (wasted) hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars in creating a Master Plan for Hoboken's future that never contemplated these and other projects with money we are now borrowing from the public? Why does an ever growing segment of each part of Hoboken have to constantly band together to pressure City Council and the Administration in doing the right thing - all of the time?Furthermore, let us look at last week's letter from Paul Somerville about Belgian blocks. Why does City Council continue to hammer away at the life, safety and historical significance of 10th and Grand and the other surrounding communities affected by their vote to asphalt those neighborhoods where Belgian block has stood for nearly more than a century. It's as if the recent award (tenuous at best as these chapters are not yet officially closed) to the community to save this neighborhood from eminent domain, must still pay a price by chipping away a part of their history and worse yet, create a potentially unsafe situation with children, elderly and dog owners going to and from Columbus Park and other parts of Hoboken from this neighborhood.

With so much to be concerned about through-out Hoboken such as the continued debacle with the 916 Garden Street parking garage, budget shortfalls and no physical evidence of new parks of significance – just talk, where do those truly committed to a better Hoboken begin? We should first begin with the track record of those currently on City Council and work from there. Spring of 2007 will be here before you know it.